Prudence Penny was a pen name for multiple food writers, authors from Hearst newspapers across the country. “Prudence” wrote columns, recipe and cookbooks, and provided household advice. Kimberly Wilmot Voss, author of The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community, explains that “because it would have been expensive to wire recipes around the country, there were different ‘Prudence Penny’ reporters at the individual Hearst newspapers.”

We’ve written about America’s infatuation with Hawaii in the late 50s and early 60s on our blog and in The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Hawaii gained statehood in 1959, and as statehood approached and for years thereafter, Americans were simply gaga for anything that smacked of these exotic Pacific islands half way between Japan and the mainland.

Meghan enjoys a Blue Hawaii on the beach in Waikiki

We were excited for this Aloha Meringue Pie, but not sure of the origin. We asked Hawaii food blogger Deb of Kahakai Kitchen if she’d heard of such Aloha Pie and she had not (she did mention Hawaiian Millionaire’s Pie and Hula Pie, and those are now on our future pie list).
The Aloha is essentially a lemon meringue pie with a few twists: first, a meringue crust is swapped for the topping. A hot, humid day in August was not the best to attempt the Aloha meringue crust. A lemon meringue pie style filling, with the addition of crushed pineapple tops the meringue, followed by an layer of whipped cream with flaked coconut, and a final topping of crushed pineapple.

The pie, as we expected was very sweet and rich, and it didn’t exactly take us to the tropics! We cut the sugar in half throughout the recipe and it was still very sweet. We opted for canned crushed pineapple and coconut flakes for 60s authenticity, but if making again, we would use fresh pineapple and coconut to boost the flavor.

We’re celebrating the release of Jenna Blum’s novel The Lost Family (HarperCollins, 6/5/18) with bloggers across the country who are creating novel-inspired recipes inspired for a virtual dinner feast — #TheLostFamilySupperClub — hosted by BookClubCookBook.com. We’re bringing two historic oyster appetizers to get the party started.

About the book: The New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us, Jenna Blum creates a vivid portrait of marriage, family, and the haunting grief of World War II in The Lost Family, in an emotionally charged, beautifully rendered story that spans a generation, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The Lost Family first transports us to 1965 Manhattan, where patrons flock to Masha’s, the restaurant owned by Peter Rashkin, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor. Peter was training as a chef in Berlin when the Nazis came to power; he now devotes himself to his successful Upper East side restaurant named after his wife who disappeared along with his daughters during a Nazi round up. When the novel begins, he meets June Bouquet, a young New York model, with whom he falls in love.

Grand Central Oyster Bar, 1960s

On arriving in Manhattan, Peter was employed as a busboy at the legendary Grand Central Oyster Bar; he was later dismissed when his exposed forearm tattoo from Auchwitz disturbed the clientele. When he tells June that he worked at the restaurant as they pass through Grand Central Station, she shudders with disgust at the thought of eating oysters, although she’s never tasted them. But, to Peter, June “tasted like a an oyster fresh from the Sound, Blue points or Peconic Pearls.”

Blum’s references to oysters and the Grand Central Oyster bar in the novel made us nostalgic for Mad Men oyster recipes. New York waters produced some of the largest, sweetest oysters in the world before over consumption and pollution took their toll, and the oyster, according to William Grimes, author of Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York (2009), was to New York what the lobster was to Boston and the crab to Baltimore. Oyster stands, oyster saloons (associated with vice and prostitution) and oyster cellars, literally basement establishments, dotted the city. “Today,” writes Grimes, “only one restaurant in New York offers an approximation of the old oyster cellars: the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Terminal.”

Since 1913, the Oyster Bar, located a level down from the street in Grand Central Station, has attracted passengers and patrons seeking fresh oysters and seafood. The Oyster Bar’s series of soaring, scallop-shaped ceilings are today lined with light bulbs, giving the impression of sitting inside an enormous, illuminated oyster shell. Oyster Stew and Oysters Rockefeller are two iconic mid century Oyster Bar menu items.

Nick Petters, the Oyster Bar’s chef in 1965, when The Lost Family opens, claimed he had made “4 million stews and each stew is 7 oysters,” wrote Nan Ickeringgill in the New York Times. The signature oyster stew “made in steam cups before the customer’s eyes, is almost as much of an institution at the Oyster Bar as Nick himself,” she added.

Author Tom Wolfe wrote of the renowned stew, “His Majesty the oyster is indigenous to this city and New Yorkers insist there are no oysters better than the fat firm Long Island kind and no dish to beat oyster stew as it is made at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station,” in New York Herald Tribune Presents: New York, New York (1964).

Grand Central Oyster Bar Oyster Stew (1965)

And Julia Child shared her version of the 1937 soup recipe along with recollections of the Oyster Bar in From Julia Child’s Kitchen (Knopf, 1882). “You sat up on a stool and peered over the counter into a series of steam bowls, where they made their famous oyster stew.”

Our 1965 version of the recipe below is from Oyster Bar Chef Nick Petters, as told to the New York Times.

Oysters Rockefeller

Antoine’s Oysters Rockefeller recipe at Pascale’s Manale in New Orleans

Oysters Rockefeller was invented in one of New Orleans’ most famous restaurants, Antoine’s, based on a dish originally made with snails. In 1899, Antoine’s began serving topping the oysters with greens, butter sauce, and breadcrumbs before baking or broiling Gulf oysters. Legend has it that a satisfied customer declared the dish, “as rich as Rockefeller,” In truth, Jules Alciatore, the founder’s son then Antoine’s owner, wanted a name that would suggest the dish was “the richest in the world,” and Oysters Rockefeller was born. The Antoine’s recipe, still popular in New Orleans is a secret, (we sampled a similar dish recently at New Orleans’ Pascale’s Manale), but has a topping of parsley, breadcrumbs, herbsaint, and celery. The Oyster Bar recipe has changed their 1960s version in which oysters were covered with wilted spinach, breadcrumbs, shallots, butter and Pernod (see our recipe from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook). If you visit the Oyster Bar today, the oysters are served a bed of creamed spinach and glazed with hollandaise sauce.

The Lost Family is a stunning novel and we savored every page of this moving exploration of Peter’s life and family. The book is also rich with descriptions of foods and drink of the 1960s1980s, and even includes menus from the fictional Masha’s. The menus “are a fusion of 1965-era favorites and German-Jewish comfort food, Peter and Masha’s favorite childhood dishes: Masha’s “Little Clouds” (cream puffs with chocolate fondue), Brisket Wellington, Chicken Kiev, and my favorite, Masha Torte—an inside-out German chocolate cake with cherries flambé,” Blum told us. “I relied on my German friend Christiane’s mother’s recipes, my childhood memories of my Jewish grandmother’s dishes, the Mad Men Cookbook and similar cookbooks from the 1960s, and ingredients from my garden.”

We’re celebrating the launch of Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share (Chronicle, 9/16) by Kathy Gunst, Resident Chef for NPR’s “Here and Now,” with bloggers across the country for #SoupSwapParty hosted by BookClubCookBook.com. Soup Swap features over sixty amazing soup recipes along with side dishes, garnishes and toppings and offers a guide to creating soup swap gatherings, where guests bring a pot of soup, and taste and take home others.

While hearty soup and sandwiches were 1960s staples, according to The Food Timeline, pairing grilled cheese with tomato soup, was a post World War II institutional food service recommendation, designed to provide the required nutritional and protein elements in lunch.

Growing up the Mad Men era, a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup, with two slices of Wonder Bread with Kraft American cheese, buttered and grilled in the Toastmaster was our usual version of this classic combo.

The Soup Swap rendition is far from our childhood one. Gunst uses fresh tomatoes, homemade vegetable broth (a great use for veggie scraps), with shallots, onion, leeks, and heavy cream, garnished with grilled cheese croutons (sliced cheddar and basil sandwiched in homemade bread and brushed with olive oil). Why weren’t we dunking our grilled cheese in tomato soup all these years? This soup is a winner.

Congratulations Kathy Gunst on this terrific new book! We look forward to many soup swaps! You can follow Soup Swap bloggers on social media using #SoupSwapParty, and you’ll find their other delicious soup recipes from the cookbook on the Soup Swap Party page.

And finally a Mad Men soup quote— food for thought from Joyce Ramsay, Peggy’s friend and assistant photo editor at LIFE magazine:

“Men are like this vegetable soup. You can’t put then on a plate or eat them off a counter. So women are the pot. They heat them up, hold them, contain them. Who wants to be a pot? Who the hell said we’re not soup?”

Tomato Soup with Grilled-Cheese Croutons from Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share (Chronicle, 9/16) by Kathy Gunst for #SoupSwapParty hosted by BookClubCookBook.com: bit.ly/SoupSwapBlogParty

To make the soup: Trim off the dark green sections from the leeks and save for making vegetable stock. Halve the pale green and white sections lengthwise. Rinse under cold running water, pat dry, and cut crosswise into thin pieces.

In a large stockpot over low heat, warm the olive oil. Add the leeks, onions, and shallot and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Cut a small X in the stem end of each tomato. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water and blanch them for about 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a colander to drain. When cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin from the tomatoes, remove the core, and coarsely chop the flesh.

Add the tomatoes to the stockpot, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the heat to high, add the vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

Using a food processor or blender and working in batches or using a handheld immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add the cream (if using), and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. If the soup is too thin or watery, simmer for about another 10 minutes, until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed.

Ladle the soup into mugs or bowls and top each with 2 to 4 croutons or a half-slice of open-faced crouton, if you prefer. Garnish with the basil and serve.

To make the croutons: Preheat the broiler. Arrange the bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Using half of the olive oil, lightly brush one side of each slice and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, flip the bread, and brush with the remaining oil. Top each slice with a basil leaf and sprinkle with an equal amount of cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

When ready to serve, cut the bread in half and serve the crouton open-faced, or sandwich two pieces of bread together and cut each sandwich into six large or eight small croutons.

Notes

Make this soup in the summer and fall, when fresh garden tomatoes are available, but there are some “acceptable” winter-tomato substitutes such as good-quality organic canned tomatoes or hothouse-grown organic winter tomatoes. Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar with the tomatoes if you are preparing this soup in winter.

The croutons can be made about 1 hour ahead, but they are best when made at the last minute. Be sure to cool them before packing them in a tightly sealed container for transport.

Bloggers give us so many reasons to adore them. They aren’t afraid to take risks, get messy in the kitchen, and think out of the box. That was certainly true of almost 50 bloggers who joined together at a virtual dinner party on April 5 to toast Mad Men’s final season with The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook and create a memorable Mad Men menu.

Girlichef recalls the opening scene of Mad Men with Don’s Old Fashioned

A few bloggers brought us right back to favorite Mad Men food moments: Girlichef went back to the opening scene of the very first episode, replicating Don’s scribbled napkin notes as he sips an Old Fashioned. Cheap Ethnic Eatz pays a tribute to Roger’s “Milky Vodka” breakfast.

Brooklyn Farm Girl was back in the Draper family kitchen, when Betty offered Don Swedish meatballs or chicken salad for dinner: our blogger declared that Don missed out by choosing the latter: “Betty’s Swedish Meatballs are where the magic is at,” she wrote.

And they partied! We Heart This served up canapés and whiskey sours for their retro happy hour office party. Dinner is Served 1972 served up a dozen dishes at her Mad Men bash with some pals: her cake fountain was a hit with our
virtual partygoers.

Dinner is Served 1972’s glowing cake fountain set the mood at her Mad Men bash.

Everyone swooned a bit. Famished Fish, Finicky Shark waxed about the divine tang and crunch of her Wedge salad, while Cookistry warned of the hazards of making Pete’s California Dip: “DON’T MAKE THIS RECIPE. Just don’t. If you do make it, you will become obsessed.” From Gate to Plate called Cocktail nibblers “perfection”: “Something a little salty to with the something boozy is a perfect pair.” *That* Susan Wiliams just loves when a recipe has a story, like the Kennedy White House and the Avocado Crabmeat Mimosa.

Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en went poolside with Pete Campbell at the Beverly Hills Hotel

Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en went poolside with Pete Cambpell, for a Beverly Hills Hotel Royal Hawaiian, got stoned with Peggy and Paul while they devised a Bacardi ad, and mixed a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Lost in Paradise assembled Betty’s appetizers from Season 6. Thank you video bloggers!

And others attending focused on creating one dish or drink. Feed Me Seymour went modern with Passion Fruit Mojitos, and Seitan Beats Your Meat captured “drowning” and illusion” in Don Drapers Journey through her image of Don’s Old Fashioned —and his journey. Merlot Mommy mixed the Roosevelt Hotel’s MadMenhattan.

There were toasts to favorite Mad Men characters: Dying for Chocolate baked Cola-Cola cake for Betty Draper, who almost had a modeling job with Coke. Mother Would Know made Date Nut Bread for Peggy and Joan and Eliot’s Eats went tropical with Joan’s Blue Hawaiian.

Of course, there was a lot of nostalgia. For Cooking Through the Clippings, there were childhood memories eating Swedish Meatballs. A Book of Cookrye remembered visiting Lindy’s in New York while making cheesecake. Jamie Godfrey used his midcentury modern gold glassware to serve his Tom Collins, while Cheap Ethnic Eatz served her vodka gimlets in goblets—a 1950s wedding anniversary gift for her grandparents.

We’re grateful to this wonderful group of bloggers who contributed to the feast by helping us share these Mad Men era recipes for others to enjoy. Cheers!

For the Virtual Mad Men Finale Party on April 5 —when we’ll be creating the ultimate Mad Men menu with bloggers worldwide—we’re pleased to share three cocktail recipes from the Roosevelt Hotel. Bartenders at the Madison Club Lounge, a classic New York City hotel bar in the Roosevelt, will mix these classic Mad Men drinks — Sterling Cooper Cosmopolitans, MadMenhattans and Dapper Dons — for the show’s final season premiere on April 5. Manager Keith Riker says the “brown spirits”, and in particular the Manhattan, have grown in popularity since Mad Men premiered in 2007.

The landmark hotel, located on Madison Avenue at 45th Street in the heart of midtown, was built in 1924, and named for President Theodore Roosevelt. This “Grand Dame of Madison Avenue” is a favorite haunt for many Mad Men characters: Don took up residence there after his split from Betty, and it’s where Sal orders a Campari when he meets Elliot from Belle Jolie Lipstick.

Bartenders at the Roosevelt Hotel

If you’re in Manhattan on April 5, head to The Roosevelt to take in the Mad Men premiere on a big screen, sip some classic cocktails, and enjoy food and giveaways in a setting that will take you right back to the Mad Men era. Sunday, April 5th, 7-11 p.m. You may even hear the echoes of Guy Lombardo and his orchestra.

The very first cocktail to appear in MadMen, and this popular drinkmakes many appearances in the series, as Don’s drink of choice. This version with his favorite whisky, Canadian Club. If you believe in client loyalty, when you make an orange twist, make it with Sunkist, a Sterling Cooper client.

Aprons on! Shakers out! Bloggers are prepping mid-century style for our final toast to Mad Men. On Sunday, April 5, bloggers from around the United States and three foreign countries will create a memorable Mad Men menu for our series finale’s Mad Men Virtual Dinner Party.

Thanks to our sponsors we have an amazing array of Mad Men prizes, including a dinner for four at Barbetta, the iconic New York Italian restaurant where Don and Bethany Van Nuys dined, and a two-night stay at Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel, frequented by Don and Sal. And many thanks to our publisher, BenBella, for providing books for all partygoers.

Blogger Prizes:

Dinner for four at Barbetta, New York’s oldest Italian restaurant, where Don and Bethany Van Nuys dined. Founded in 1906 and operated to this day by the founder’s daughter Laura Maioglio, Barbetta specializes in northern Italian cuisine from the Piemonte region, Barbetta is the oldest Italian restaurant in New York still run by the founding family.

A two night stay at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, where Don relocated when he was having marital trouble, and where Sal orders a Campari when he meets Elliot from Belle Jolie Lipstick. A couple of nights at this landmark midtown hotel will place you right back in the Mad Men era.

A gift certificate to Grand Central Oyster Bar, where Don and Roger gorge on oysters and martinis for lunch. It’s an easy stroll from the mythical Madison Avenue offices of Sterling Cooper to this classic New York eatery.

Brownies from William Greenberg Desserts, Don and Meghan’s gift when they visit Pete and Trudy’s Cos Cob home. For almost 70 years, William Greenberg baked goods have been synonymous with good taste: “well bred and adventurous with a refined dazzle,” New York Magazine once said of Manhattan’s most famous brownies.

A Year of Snacks from Utz Snacks, an early Sterling Cooper client. In 1962, Sterling Cooper hired Jimmy Barrett, a shock-comic, to do TV spots for Utz Potato Chips. Try Utz with our California Dip!

Russel Wright American Modern™ Pitcher and Tumblers and Fruit Bowls from Bauer Pottery. You’ll see Wright’s iconic designs on Mad Men. Bauer Pottery of Los Angeles has the exclusive license to produce Russel Wright’s dinnerware – the most widely sold American ceramic dinnerware in history.

WMFAmericas Bar Style Ice Scoops, Vino Basic Wine Sets and Loft Boston Shakers: Shake it Up Mad Men style with professional quality barware from WMF Americas. The Loft Boston Cocktail Shaker features modern European styling, their Wine Set includes a winged corkscrew, foil cutter and bottle stopper and the barstyle ice scoop features a durable stainless steel body with perforations that allow the excess water to drain away from the ice.

A surprise gift from Sunkist, a client of Sterling Cooper and Partners.

The promo images and video for Mad Men Season 7 showing Don, Roger and company flying TWA got us thinking about the now defunct airline and its famous Royal Ambassador Class service of the late 1960s, when flight attendants were airborne bartenders. To learn more, we spoke with Marge Siegal, a former TWA flight attendant who started flying with the airline in 1970.

Siegal is the editor of The Very Best ofTWA, a collection of 130 recipes from TWA kitchens, which also includes contributions from former flight attendants.

TWA was known as the “airline to the stars,” says Siegal, recalling the glory days of flight. “We were the first to do in-flight meals. Celebrities loved flying TWA, and three popes chartered flights to the United States on TWA.”

“Flying was more glamorous and the meals were too,” adds Siegal. “It was a different era. People dressed up and we were proud to fly.”

Dinners, served on Rosenthal China, were made in kitchens on the ground, but flight attendants added sauces and garnishes in the airplane galleys. “Drinks, served in glassware, were all mixed in flight. Passengers expected cocktails and we would gladly mix them,” says Siegal. There were many cocktail options, including the famous Royal Ambassador Cocktail (see recipe). The most popular TWA inflight cocktail ever served was not a 1960s cocktail, but an 1980s concoction, the Bocce Ball, a mix of amaretto, orange juice and club soda. A TWA favorite of the Mad Men era was the GK Cadillac, made with Galliano, Kahlua and cream from those little airline creamers, served over crushed ice.

TWA Royal Ambassador Mug

TWA Royal Ambassador Service Menu

What could Don and Roger expect in first class? In the early days, recalls Siegal, beverages were served to passengers in glassware while the plane was on the ground. Hot towels were passed after take off. Linen tablecloths were placed on the seat trays and cocktail service began again. Attendants came down the aisle with an appetizer cart, which included caviar. The most popular appetizer, however, was Coquille St. Jacques.

“Then we came through with a salad cart and made salads to order,” says Siegal. “For entrees, TWA was famous for Chateaubriand, which was served from a carving cart. Our steaks and Chateaubriand were cooked to order. Many entrees were boarded in foil pans with steaks in one, potatoes in another, veggies in yet another., and we assembled the entrees in the galley, with the appropriate sauces and garnishes before serving to our passengers. It was no small feat to try to accommodate different meat preferences, when they were all boarded in the same pan,” says Siegal. A perennial favorite entrée, she recalls, was Iron Skillet Chicken, a fried boneless chicken breast with a sweet and sour sauce.

The Very Best of TWA

Finally, there was a dessert cart. Most popular was Grand Marnier Fluff – a combination of orange juice, gelatin, sugar and vanilla pudding served with whipped topping and vanilla ice cream. The dessert cart also featured cheese, crackers, fruit and cordials.

It was a far cry from flying today and no one paid to check a bag.

To order a copy of The Very Best ofTWA,email Marge Siegal (Margesiegal@gmail.com).

In the promotional images for Mad Men’s Season 7, Don Draper waits in front of New York’s famed Algonquin Hotel.

It’s not the first time the Algonquin Hotel has appeared in Mad Men. We’ve chosen the Classic Algonquin Cocktail to toast Season 7, offering the Algonquin Hotel’s recipe and a look at Mad Men’s history with the Manhattan landmark.

The lobby of the Algonquin in the early Mad Men era (photo: Algonquin Hotel)

The famed Algonquin Round Table, for which one of the midtown hotel’s current restaurants is named, was a group of actors, humorists, newspaper writers, and critics that met at a round table in the Algonquin for lunch every day from 1919 to 1929. Membership was fluid, but included, at one time or another, the sportswriter Heywood Broun, editor of the New Yorker Harold Ross, actor and humorist Robert Benchley, actress Tallulah Bankhead, and actor and comedian Harpo Marx.

Classic Algonquin Cocktail (photo: Algonquin Hotel)

Bartender Rodney Landers of the Blue Bar, and previously of the Plaza Hotel, recommended the classic Algonquin cocktail as befitting two advertising
executives meeting quietly to discuss an employment matter. Made with a “top-shelf rye whiskey base,” the drink also includes vermouth and pineapple juice as its two other principal ingredients. While Jim Hobart is a very persuasive man, we doubt even a couple of Algonquin cocktails, as fine as they are, would have persuaded Don to jump ship from Sterling Cooper.

The Classic Algonquin Cocktail from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin (SmartPop, 2011). Made with a “top-shelf
rye whiskey base,” the drink also includes vermouth and pineapple juice as its two other principal ingredients

Ingredients

2-1/4 oz rye whiskey, preferably top-shelf small-batch whiskey

3/4 oz vermouth

3/4 oz pineapple juice

Lemon twist, for garnish

Instructions

Pour whiskey, vermouth, and pineapple juice in a cocktail shaker and shake.

Keens Steak House serve roast mutton to guests at the James Beard House “Mad About Mad Men” event.

We can’t imagine a more perfect setting for such an evening than James Beard’s home. Beard, the literal and figurative giant who towered over the mid-20thcentury culinary scene, lived in the Greenwich Village townhouse that now bears his name. His cookbook collection lines the walls of a fireplaced living room; memorabilia of his extraordinary career as a chef and writer is everywhere, from his distinctive chef’s

jacket with its finely embroidered floral design to photos of him with Julia Child.

We had the privilege of watching as teams of consummate professionals went about the work of preparing a tasting dinner for 80 guests. Tables were set and chairs relayed up the four flights of stairs that wind though the narrow home. James Conley, the

Keens Old Fashioneds along with the ingredients, and historic food memorabilia

service manager at Keens, spent hours meticulously muddling bitters, simple syrup and orange slices for Old Fashioneds. Dozens of oysters were shucked and martinis readied by the staff of the Grand Central Oyster Bar: their raw bar also featured clams, Shrimp Cocktail, and Bloody Mary Oyster Shooters. Izabela herself filled endive leaves with Waldorf Salad in the downstairs kitchen and Brian Carter, who now runs the bar at the original P.J. Clarke’s on Third Street, rimmed cocktail glasses with sugar for his Sidecars – one of our favorite cocktails in our book, made with cognac, Cointreau, orange and lemon juices. We imagine it was a bit like being behind the scenes at the Bolshoi just before the curtain goes up: a little bit of chaos followed by pure elegance once the show begins.

Brian Carter of P. J. Clarke’s shakes up their classic Sidecar.

P.J. Clarke’s also served their legendary Miniature Cadillac Burgers with Smoked Country Bacon and Classic American Cheese along with Crispy Parmesan Tater Tots with Sir Kensington Classic Ketchup. (If you haven’t tried Sir Kensington’s Ketchup, you must!) Delmonico’s offered their Famous Lobster Newburg and Oysters Diamond Jim Brady while the ’21’ Club served its signature Steak Diane and French 75s – champagne cocktails.

The chefs discussed James Beard’s influence on their careers: “Exploring all the variety of what we have to offer as Americans to the food culture of the world has been a great journey that still is not finished,” said P.J. Clarke’s chef Mike DeFonzo. “The legacy of James Beard is like a road map for me, as I wander off the guided path, I can always use his knowledge and writings to guide me back to the main road so I can wander again.”

It’s no easy feat, especially in New York City, for these restaurants to move the provisions and staff they need to participate in an event like this, especially since their

establishments were all open for business that night. But Bill Rodgers, the Executive Chef at Keen’s who was carving Roasted Mutton with mint accompaniment, told us you simply don’t decline the opportunity to participate in a James Beard House event. And if it was an honor for these legendary New York restaurants, with histories dating back well over a century, to participate, we were doubly honored to share the evening with them, to taste recipes from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook brought to life by the best in the business, and

The Grand Central Oyster Bar staff prep their raw bar.

to have our book recognized by The James Beard Foundation. Many thanks to all of the participating restaurants, chefs and the James Beard Foundation staff for this memorable evening.

F. Scott Fitzgerald helped to popularize the Mint Juelp – a bourbon and mint cocktail – in The Great Gatsby. Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan cool off with a Mint Julep at New York’s Plaza Hotel on a hot day.

“Roger Sterling’s hedonism and lack of self-awareness are in full flower at the Kentucky Derby–themed garden party he and his new young wife Jane throw at an elegant Long Island country club. Guests mingle under the party tent and sip mint juleps in silver cups, Southern-style. Made up in blackface, and backed by a jazz band clad in straw boaters and Roaring Twenties–style red-and-white striped jackets, he sings ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ to Jane, the overt racism clearly lost on him and over Jane’s head. Later, Don and Betty Draper have to help Jane to her seat; she’s clearly had a few too many mint juleps.

“This classic Southern cocktail evokes the gentility of the South and hot, humid summer days passed on the porch of an elegant plantation-style home. For Betty, mint juleps were also the perfect refreshment to serve to the adults who accompany their children to Sally’s sixth birthday party (season 1, episode 3; “Marriage of Figaro”).

“The origins of the mint julep aren’t known, though legend has it that a Kentuckian boating on the Mississippi River stopped along the banks one day to pick fresh mint, which he then added to his bourbon and water mixture. An integral part of Kentucky culture, the mint julep is the official drink of the Kentucky Derby.

“This contemporary julep courtesy of the ‘21’ Club in Manhattan that features a delicious mint-infused simple syrup.”